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Imran Khan (Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi; son of Ikram Ullah khan Niazi Shermankhel) born November 25, 1952, in Lahore is a Pakistani former cricketer turned politician. Imran played Test cricket for Pakistan between 1971 and 1992, and was captain of the nation

Imran Khan (Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi; son of Ikram Ullah khan Niazi Shermankhel) born November 25, 1952, in Lahore is a Pakistani former cricketer turned politician. Imran played Test cricket for Pakistan between 1971 and 1992, and was captain of the national team when they won their maiden World Cup in 1992. Currently, Imran is a member of Parliament and leader of the political party, the Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice).

History and Background

Imran is from the Niazi Pashtun Shermankhel tribe of mianwali Pakistan. His family is settled in Lahore Punjab, however, he still considers himself and his heritage Pashtun (Pathan) as per his autobiography (Warrior Race: A Journey Through the Land of the Tribal Pathans). [1] Imran attended Aitchison College and the Cathedral School in Lahore until he finished middle school, then entered the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, before completing his formal schooling with an undergraduate degree in economics from Keble College, Oxford. While at University, Imran was also the captain of the Oxford University cricket team in 1974. He and his mother Shaukat khanum comes from a cricketing burki family, with two of his cousins Javed Burki and Majid Khan also having played Test cricket for Pakistan.Imran is seen as one of the finest all-rounders the game has ever produced, along with Garfield Sobers, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee and Wasim Akram. He was one of the fastest bowlers of the world during the late 1970s and early 1980s and in the later half of his career, one of the best batsmen in the Pakistan team. More significantly, as a captain, he transformed the Pakistan team, previously known for its exceptional talent but lack of coherence into a well moulded unit.

This famous Pashtun is not only known for his performances on the field, but off the field as well. Labelled by some as an international playboy, Khan was once voted as the “Sexiest Man of The Year” by Australia Magazine Oz.

Early Years

In 1997, he has started a socio-political movement in Pakistan known as Movement for Justice (Urdu: Tehrik-e-Insaaf) and ran for office in the National Elections. The movement has Islamic overtones and was inspired partly by Khan’s renewed commitment to Islam. He became a Member of Parliament for Mianwali in the October 2002 elections. He is very critical of the judicial system in Pakistan, which he says prevents accountability for the elite class in Pakistan. Initially Imram supported 1999’s militray coup of General Pervez Musharraf, however came in to the fore-front of those against General and President Musharraf.

In Power

He elected as member of National Assembly in 2002 elections from NA-71 , Mianwali-I

The man behind Burma’s secret nuclear plans, Senior General Than Shwe,is one of the world’s most brutal and reclusive dictators. Hidden in his bunker in the newly built capital, Naypyidaw (which means “seat of kings”), his appearances in public are rare and his interactions with the international community unusual.

Aged 76, the former postal clerk became Burma’s ruler in 1992, 30 years after the military under Ne Win first seized power. Colourless, uncharismatic and relatively uneducated Than Shwe rose through the ranks by simply obeying orders and showing loyalty. Indeed, his apparent lack of flair, initiative and intellect were precisely the qualities the army rewarded. He was not perceived by his superiors as a threat – and was rewarded accordingly. Far from showing courage or prowess on the battlefield, he led his troops into numerous defeats at the hands of the Communists – but that did not appear to have been a barrier to promotion.

A skilled manipulator, Than Shwe consolidated his power using classic divide-and-rule tactics against his rivals within the regime and his opponents among the democratic and ethnic groups. Trained in psychological warfare in the 1960s, he lectured for a time at Ne Win’s Central Party School, so he is steeped in the use of propaganda. Billboards across the country display the regime’s message in Orwellian tones.

His regime has relentlessly suppressed pro-democracy activists, while in its long war againt the ethnic minorities it has used forced labour, rape, extra-judicial killings and torture as weapons of war and has overseen the destruction of 3,000 villages. The Burmese junta ranks alongside its new partners North Korea as among the worst abusers of human rights in the world.

Than Shwe is heavily influenced by astrology. In 2005, he announced that he was moving the capital from bustling Rangoon to the middle of the jungle 600 kilometres away. It is believed that he made this decision on the advice of astrologers, although it was also a result of his fear of a US invasion and to protect him against another uprising. He reportedly has at least seven personal astrologers, including several dedicated solely to monitoring the fortunes of imprisoned democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A new constitution will enshrine military rule, and elections scheduled for next year are expected to be a sham.

Add ACID attacks and you get the fraud drug Taliban making Afghans a laughing stock of world.

Toxic powder used to contaminate air in girls’ classrooms, leaving scores of students unconscious in Takhar province.

Last Modified: 24 May 2012 08:05

Since 2001, three million school-aged girls have returned to school [GALLO/GETTY]

More than 120 schoolgirls and three teachers have been poisoned in the second attack in as many months in Afghanistan blamed on conservative radicals in the country’s north, Afghan police and education officials have said.

The attack occurred on Wednesday in Takhar province where police said the Taliban, who are opposed to education of women and girls, had used an unidentified toxic powder to contaminate the air in classrooms, leaving scores of students unconscious.

Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), said the Taliban appear intent on closing schools ahead of a 2014 withdrawal by foreign combat troops.

From the perspective of one neighbourhood in Herat

“A part of their Al Farooq spring offensive operation is … to close schools. By poisoning girls they want to create fear. They try to make families not send their children to school,” NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education said last week that 550 schools in 11 provinces where the Taliban have strong support had been closed down.

Last month, 150 schoolgirls were poisoned in the Takhar province after they drank contaminated water.

Since 2001, when the Taliban were toppled from power by US-backed Afghan forces, three million school-aged girls have returned to school.

Women were previously banned from work and education under Taliban rule.

There are still periodic attacks against students, teachers and school buildings, usually in the more conservative south and east of the country, where the Taliban draws most of its support

Some 160 schoolgirls are suspected to have been poisoned in the north-eastern Afghan province of Takhar. This comes less than a week after another similar case was blamed on the Taliban, that have repeatedly spoken out against female education.

There are suspicions that the classrooms had been sprayed with a toxic material before the girls entered, police said. They suspect Taliban to be behind the incident.

Last week 120 girls were sent to hospital after a similar suspected poisoning. Later in the week the Taliban denied any involvement in that case.

Many fear that the international troop withdrawal in 2014 may put Afghanistan back into the hands of the Taliban and result in the further violation of women’s rights and a ban on education.

Between 1996 and 2001 when the Taliban was in power the movement banned school education for girls in the country.

NGOs active in Afghanistan say many young women are leaving the country fearing the return of Taliban rule.

“They see no future for themselves in Afghanistan so the bright ones are seeking scholarships or work abroad,” Selay Ghaffar, from the Kabul-based NGO Humanitarian Assistance told Guardian.

Afghan officials confirm that the fears of a Taliban return make women consider leaving the country to avoid possible violence and rights deprivation.

The government and the Taliban ignore women’s rights in their negotiations, said Guhramaana Kakar, a gender adviser to President Hamid Karzai.

Kakar revealed that according to a recent survey 86% of Afghan women were fearful of a return to Taliban-style rule and one in five worried about the education of their daughters.

“Women want the progress that has been made over the past 10 years to continue, but they are being kept away from the political processes,” Kakar declared asserting that if more women were allowed into the provincial councils, this would show the Taliban that they cannot reverse 10 years of women’s advancements.

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(Reuters) – About 150 Afghan schoolgirls were poisoned on Tuesday after drinking contaminated water at a high school in the country’s north, officials said, blaming it on conservative radicals opposed to female education.

Since the 2001 toppling of the Taliban, which banned education for women and girls, females have returned to schools, especially in Kabul.

But periodic attacks still occur against girls, teachers and their school buildings, usually in the more conservative south and east of the country, from where the Taliban insurgency draws most support.

“We are 100 percent sure that the water they drunk inside their classes was poisoned. This is either the work of those who are against girls’ education or irresponsible armed individuals,” said Jan Mohammad Nabizada, a spokesman for education department in northern Takhar province.

Some of the 150 girls, who suffered from headaches and vomiting, were in critical condition, while others were able to go home after treatment in hospital, the officials said.

They said they knew the water had been poisoned because a larger tank used to fill the affected water jugs was not contaminated.

“This is not a natural illness. It’s an intentional act to poison schoolgirls,” said Haffizullah Safi, head of Takhar’s public health department.

None of the officials blamed any particular group for the attack, fearing retribution from anyone named.

The Afghan government said last year that the Taliban, which has been trying to adopt a more moderate face to advance exploratory peace talks, had dropped its opposition to female education.

But the insurgency has never stated that explicitly and in the past acid has been thrown in the faces of women and girls by hardline Islamists while walking to school.

Education for women was outlawed by the Taliban government from 1996-2001 as un-Islamic.

Before we can help Muslims of Burma we need to ACCEPT 50 years of PURE EVIL rule of MILITARY in BURMA was PURE EVIL. Army BRUTALISED nearly all BURMA citizens.
Have a quick read of this paragraph in >>not so wrong<< Wiki :

“….Burma is a resource-rich country. However, the Burmese economy is one of the least developed in the world. Burma’s GDP stands at $42.953 billion and grows at an average rate of 2.9% annually – the lowest rate of economic growth in the Greater Mekong Subregion.[9] Among others, the EU, United States and Canada have imposed economic sanctions on Burma.[10]Burma’s health care system is one of the worst in the world: The World Health Organization ranked Burma at 190th, the worst performing of all countries.

The United Nations and several other organizations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country, including child labour, human trafficking and a lack of freedom of speech. In recent years, the country and its military leadership has made large concessions to democratic activists and is slowly improving its relations with the major powers and the UN…”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma see very start of Article. Then go down to >>>>Military rule (1962–2011)<<<<
So its hunger and treatable diseases killing MUSLIM and NON-MUSLIM babies. While generals rule and “keep their Burma free” of USA friendship ! Sorry but I never see any Government getting better by taking ANTI-WEST line !!! So who you are going to trade with China ? China treats its minorities very badly too.

“… Burma Anti Muslim 2012 violence

In June 2012, 2000+ people were displaced in sectarian violence in the state in which most victims were Muslims. The government promised a full investigation.

Representatives from different religions and minorities in Pakistan condemned the atrocities inflicted on the Muslims of the Republic of Union of Myanmar. They said that minorities across the world had equal rights to lead their lives according to their belief, traditions and culture while the majority should not exploit their rights and narrow their path towards free movement. They said that genocide of Myanmar Muslims was a serious threat to world peace and was a serious human rights violation, which the United Nations should stop immediately.

[41] It all started on 3rd June 2012 when 11 innocent Muslims were killed by the Burmese Army and the Buddhist mobs after bringing them down from a bus. A vehement protest was carried out in the Muslim majority province of Arakan, but the Protestants fell victims to the tyranny of the mobs and the army.More than 50 people were reported killed and millions of homes destroyed in fires as Muslim-ethnic Rohingya and Buddhist-ethnic Arakanese clashed in western Burma….”

Muslims under General Ne Win

When General Ne Win swept to power on a wave of nationalism in 1962, the status of Muslims changed for the worse. Muslims were expelled from the army and were rapidly marginalized.[2]Burma has a Buddhist majority. Muslims are stereotyped in the society as “cattle killers” (referring to the cattle sacrifice festival of Eid Al Adha in Islam). The generic racist slur of “kala” (black) used against perceived “foreigners” has especially negative connotations when referring to Burmese Muslims. The more pious Muslim communities who segregate themselves from the Buddhist majority face greater difficulties than those who integrate more at the cost of observance to Islamic personal laws.[3]

Muslims in Burma are affected by the actions of Islamic extremism in other countries. Violence in Indonesiaperpetrated by Islamists is used as a pretext to commit violence against Muslim minorities in Burma. The anti-Buddhist actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan (the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan) was also used as a pretext to commit violence against Muslims in Burma by Buddhist mobs. Human Rights Watchreports that there was mounting tension between the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Taungoo for weeks before it erupted into violence in the middle of May 2001. Buddhist monks demanded that the Hantha Mosque in Taungoo be destroyed in “retaliation” for the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.[4] Mobs of Buddhists, led by monks, vandalized Muslim-owned businesses and property and attacked and killed Muslims in Muslim communities. This was followed by retaliation by Muslims against Buddhists….”

Anti-Muslim riots in Rakhine (2012)

“….Buddhists started another genocide in Rakhine in June 2012, after Myanmar’s President Thein Sein has said Rohingya Muslims must be expelled from the country and sent to refugee camps run by the United Nations.It all started on 3rd June 2012 when 11 innocent Muslims were killed by the Burmese Army and the Buddhist mobs after bringing them down from a bus. A vehement protest was carried out in the Muslim majority province of Arakan, but the protestors fell victim to the tyranny of the mobs and the army. More than 50 people were reported killed and thousands of homes destroyed in fires as Muslim-ethnic Rohingya and Buddhist-ethnic Arakanese clashed in western Burma.Now up to date i.e. 28 th July, 2012. More than 50,000 people has been killed and many of them burnt in fire inclulded childrens and women as well as 1600 villages has been burnt and there is no muslim available.

Agents provocateur

While the idea of monks actually leading rioters may seem unusual, certain details make it less so. Burma’s large and much feared military intelligence service, the Directorate of Defense Security Intelligence, is commonly believed to have agents working within the monk-hood. Human Rights Watch also reported that monks in the 2001 riots were carrying mobile phones, a luxury not readily available to the Burmese population, as very few without government connections can afford them. It is also reported that there was a clear split between monks who provoked violence and those who did not. It has been suggested by Human Rights Watch and others that these facts may reflect the presence of agents provocateur among the monks.[132]

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Free eBooks are available from eLibraries and ofcourse this means no late fees or going to library every time.

Libraries are going digital as the world turns on to e-reading, writes Katie Cincotta.

E-book enthusiast Sue Anderson eagerly awaits her email notifications alerting her to the availability of new titles. Photo: John Woudstra

SUE Anderson, 68, of Boronia, has a Kobo and has been borrowing e-books from Eastern Regional Libraries in Victoria for the past six months.

She’s one of the 2391 members across the Knox, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges councils signed up for the service, which launched a year ago with 6738 e-books from global e-book distributor OverDrive.

The anonymity of downloading a racy e-book title at home rather than coming into the library seems to be coming into play here

Eastern Regional Libraries information services manager Paul Burden

Eastern Regional Libraries information services manager Paul Burden says while the virtual library is still small – with only five of the seven leading publishers allowing their books to be borrowed through OverDrive – demand for digital borrowing is growing.

”We have 13 physical branches and a couple of mobile libraries, but now we’re looking at a virtual branch,” Burden says. ”In a year since the library launched its e-book collection, it’s now lending 3000 digital books every month. It’s nowhere close to print, but it is becoming more popular,” Burden says.

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Eastern Regional’s most sought-after e-books have been Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, closely followed by Jodi Picoult novels. The most popular title by an Australian author is Anh Do’s The Happiest Refugee.

Burden says romance, erotica and supernatural romance genres are also on the up – with digital readers able to hide their guilty pleasure for saucy tales such as In Bed with a Highlander by Maya Banks inside a screen. ”The anonymity of downloading a racy e-book title at home rather than coming into the library seems to be coming into play here,” Burden says.

Anderson, who loves traditional murder mysteries, admits her favourite authors are still hard to come by in digital, which she says has forced her to diversify and consider other writers.

”It’s a shame, but now I’m reading different authors like Claire Rayner and [characters such as] Sherlock Holmes.”

The long-time book buff says she likes the freedom of pre-ordering an e-book online and getting an email to tell her when it’s available. But while you might expect loan copies to be limitless with digital, licensing agreements still restrict many titles to single copies, so there’s still a borrowing queue.

”In regards to the single copies, this is purely a licensing agreement,” City of Melbourne spokeswoman Shelley Blake says. ”If the e-books are really popular, we tend to get multiple copies.”

The Melbourne Library’s digital catalogue offers 1408 e-books for borrowing and 34,000 public domain titles to choose from that never expire and don’t count against your library checkout – classics such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, magazines such as The Botanical and books on philosophy, folklore and travel.

Holding the virtual library back from further expansion are the limited publishing rights and the fact OverDrive doesn’t operate on Amazon’s Kindle outside of the US.

That’s set to change with the company’s recent acquisition of Australian e-book firm Booki.sh and its technology, as it prepares to launch the more flexible OverDrive Read system later in the year based on open standards HTML5 and EPUB, which enable access on all devices.

Burden says kudos should go to Australian publishers who are already on board and trailblazing the digital shift, including Text Publishing, which has given permission for inclusion in OverDrive’s collection of more than 650,000 digital titles, with Eastern Regional buying 250 e-books from Text Publishing from Australian authors including Peter Temple, Kate Grenville, Shane Maloney, S.J. Watson, Raimond Gaita and Kate Holden.

Libraries such as Eastern Regional run starter sessions to show people how to set up the software, which members such as Anderson say opens the e-book gateway.

”It was frustrating in the beginning with downloading from OverDrive, so I went to a talk at the Boronia branch to learn all about it,” she says.

”After that, it was foolproof.”

Since then she’s borrowed 20 e-book titles and has taken to reading outdoors. ”God, it’s good,” she says.

”We went for a holiday in Somers and my husband was fishing on Flinders Pier and it was wonderful. I was sitting there reading, the wind blowing a gale, and it didn’t bother me in the slightest because the pages weren’t blowing.”

The learned retiree is now reading an e-book a week, ordering in advance from the Eastern Regional website, and is chuffed to get an email when it’s available to download, which she says takes just seconds.

”It’s 100 per cent easier on an e-reader. You can borrow them for three weeks, and then they disappear from your list.

”And you don’t have to walk out of the library holding a bunch of books.”

On a train to Mildura, the grandmother recalls the joy of being able to travel with her Kobo and not her swag of hardbacks. ”I read both, but if we’re going away, all I take is the e-reader loaded with my library e-books. It’s wonderful.”

Whispering Hill, a part of Lal Sohanra Park near Bahawalpur, one of Pakistan’s largest reserved forests is spread over 88,400 hectares. It is the country’s largest reserve of wild deer and bird species.

Photographs of Whispering Hill are some of the 140 photographs displayed at the exhibition Forest of Life at the Alhamra Art Gallery on The Mall. It opened on July 10 and shall continue till July 18.

The photographs have been taken by Yasir Nisar, a landscape photographer, sopported by funds from Engro Polymer and Chemicals (EPCL). Nisar says he took over 40,000 photographs of 10 types of forest cover in the country for the project.

EPCL began its Go Green drive in 2009, declared International Year of Forests by the United Nations, and has planted 635 acres of forest in the galliyat and mangroves in Sindh.

Spread across three halls in the gallery, the photographs include the conifer forests of the Ayubia National Park, the chilghoza pines of the Chitral Gol Park, Fairy Meadows, autumn in Hunza, summer in Skardu and Shandur, the Khal Maghsi desert in Balochistan, apricot gardens in Swat and Margalla Hills,.

Sara Aziz, an EPCL communications officer, had accompanied Nisar in the photography expeditions from May 2011 till June 2012.

Aziz said the display is a platform to show the variety of forest cover in Pakistan. “Forest cover is now less than four per cent of country’s total area,” she said.

Aziz has been researching forest zones in collaboration with the IUCN, Pakistan and WWF, Pakistan.

“No group had documented all the forest zones in Pakistan. This is the first project to do so,” she said.

Nisar said 80 per cent of the photographs used in the display were taken after May 2011.

“We also used some old pictures since it is impossible to capture various seasons in each forest over a single year,” he said.

“We visited Shandur in early summer last year. It was very difficult to photograph since there were barely any people there.

It is hard to get through nights without proper camping equipment since temperatures fall to 10 degrees Celsius below zero,” he said. “It is a tough terrain to survive.”

“Kalam’s conifer forests and the deodars of the Neelum Valley in Kashmir are fast deteriorating,” he says. “Locals have no electricity supply. They chop trees for fuel.”

He said that he saw no wild bears in Deosai despite staying there for a week. “I had spotted them within two days when I visited in 2006 and 2009,” he said.

The exhibition will be taken to Karachi and then Peshawar after Ramazan.

The landscape of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is rich in forest varieties. Displaying the photographs in Peshawar is perhaps more important than exhibiting them in Islamabad, Aziz said.

Aziz said that some visitors had encouraged them to conserve forests. The Fisheries DG and Wildlife DG had visited the exhibition on July 10 and shown interest in the project, she said.

Forest of Life’ put on display at Alhamra

LAHORE: An exhibition of photographs titled ‘FoRest of Life’ was opened at Alhamra Art Gallery on Tuesday, showcasing the rich flora of Pakistan.

The pictures on display have been captured by Yasir Nisar, and represent various forests of the country, including sub-alpine coniferous forests, dry temperate coniferous forests, moist temperate coniferous forests, sub-tropical pines, dry tropical broad leaved forests, dry tropical thorn forests, riverain forests, mangroves, irrigated plantations and liner plantations. Addressing the inauguration, Engro Polymer and Chemicals Limited CEO Khalid Siraj Subhani said, “Forests represent the sheer strength of nature, and consequently, a nation, and as responsible corporate entities, we believe it is our duty to protect this natural endowment. ” The exhibition has been launched with a collective aim of reaching out to the community and creating an acute awareness of the importance of preserving this important resource.